Jetway ATI RADEON 9600LE 128MB DDR 128-bit $65 Shipped

[metapy]

Nice price for an ATI 9600 128MB 128-bit video card. Most other cards in this price range are only 64bit cards, but since Newegg has both the 64bit and 128bit version of this card it does seem to be a legit deal. It is passively cooled so you may want an active cooling solution if you want to overclock this card, fortunately SVC has a deal on their Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer Revision 3 which should fit this card nicely and for $10. Use code "NO CODE FOR YOU (sorry AT users try a less restrictive forum)" to get the Silencer Rev. 3 for $10, shipping was $5 for me.

Jetway ATI RADEON 9600LE Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "96LE-AD-128C" -RETAIL

Model# 96LE-AD-128C
Item # N82E16814153014

Specifications:
Chipset/Core Speed: ATI Radeon 9600LE/325MHz
Memory/Effective Speed: 128MB DDR/400MHz
BUS: AGP 4X/8X
Ports: VGA Out(15 Pin D-Sub) + TV-Out (S-Video) + DVI
Support 3D API: DirectX 9, OpenGL 1.5
Max Resolution@32bit Color: 2048X1536@85Hz
Cable/Accessories: S-Video Cable, Manual, Driver CD
Retail Box (See pics for details)

The 9600LE seems to be a classification for the passively cooled variety of the 9600 series as it is definitely not the 9600SE version with the 64-bit memory bus. See the comparison chart below.
Compare 9600s

 

[LordPhoenix]

Lazy Edition?

 

[superHARD]

I didn't notice a LE on that ATI link.

 

[demon42]

Is this card decent? i currently have a maddog fx5200 PCI (i know, thats why i want a new card)

would you guess I'll see a marked improvement with this in my 8x agp?

 

[metapy]

Yeah you would see better performace all around. Look here:
Review of 9600 and 5200

 

[uwannawhat]

I bought this card about a week ago.

I'd say it's on par with a TI 4200 but slightly better.

Of course with the ATI cards you get much better detail rather than framerates as with nvidia.

 

[epileptic]

Ive used this card and the rosewill 64bit version one and as far as i can tell the LE means nothing as its noticably faster than the rosewill card, but i expected it to be as its 128bit. its an alright card for the price but id spend more a get a better card that can atleast outperform the 9700 .....which is old as hell and still outperforming all the cards around $100.

 

[gshock888]

great for building budget rigs for others and yourself

 

[ww4397]

Originally posted by: uwannawhat
I bought this card about a week ago.

So did I.

I'd say it's on par with a TI 4200 but slightly better.

I agree and it is DX9 capable.

Of course with the ATI cards you get much better detail rather than framerates as with nvidia.





Maybe it's me, but my screen seems to have a very, very slight "flicker" with this card. I've increased the refresh rate from 75 to 85Hz and I still see it. I never noticed it with my old Ti4200.


[UPDATE]

I solved the "flicker" problem. It seems that the ATI monitor refresh setting supersedes the Windows monitor setting. In Windows I had the setting at 85Hz but, the ATI setting was at 60 Hz. When I changed the ATI setting to 85 Hz the "flicker" was gone.

 

[Savarak]

I still use a GF3 Ti200 with my A64 3000+ system!! eep!

who wants to hook me up with the TI 4200(or any other gfx card thats better than the gf3ti200) that you replaced with this 9600LE? I'll pay for shipping

 

[ww4397]

FYI. I ran 3DMark05 on this (not overclocked) card and got a 1038 score. This was on a 3200+ Barton system.

 

[metapy]

Yeah looks like this card is not going to be a spectacular gamer... good thing I do not do much gaming I will post my 3dmark scores both regular and overclocked. Also getting an Arctic Cooler so I should be able to push this card a little.

3dmark05 scores

 

[GMElias]

nice card
-Elias

 

[jpeyton]

3DMark05 isn't indicitive of todays games. Even a 9800 does craptacular in that benchmark. Try '03, or an actual game benchmark.

 

[Tarindel]

I bought this card last week after reading about it on a different thread here. For $65, it's a great AGP card if you need a DX9 capability on a budget. As a side note, the memory on this thing is 36ns, which means it should be clockable up to 550 mhz -- I haven't tried OCing the card yet. You can tell it's the 128 bit version because of the 128C designation in the part number -- the 64 bit version has a 128B.

 

[RBC]

How much of a step up would this be over these two cards?:

My son's GF2 TI450 64 mb (mostly games - RTS and RP, little FPS)

Mine ATI 8500 Pro 128 mb (mostly home video editing)

Thanks for the help!

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: Tarindel
I bought this card last week after reading about it on a different thread here. For $65, it's a great AGP card if you need a DX9 capability on a budget. As a side note, the memory on this thing is 36ns, which means it should be clockable up to 550 mhz -- I haven't tried OCing the card yet. You can tell it's the 128 bit version because of the 128C designation in the part number -- the 64 bit version has a 128B.

I suspect these chips are speed binned rejects that would not run over 225MHz (450MHz DDR) because I'll be damned if I can get passed 225MHz without artifacts in UT2003 and 3DMark 2001SE. Even tried aiming a fan onto the video card - no go higher than 225MHz. The card is rock solid, though, below 225MHz.

I thought it was overkill to put 550MHz DRAM on a card with a default clock of 400MHz. Now it makes perfect sense....

How much of a step up would this be over these two cards?

Go to Tom's VGA Charts III and compare the R8500 with R9600 (325/400 128-bit). The Jetway is essentially a standard Radeon 9600 non-Pro. Although GF2 isn't among the tested cards, its safe to exclude it. The R8500 should be faster than GF2 across the board, and if R9600 is faster than R8500, you have your answer.

 

[Melectricus]

Does anyone know the difference between the "b" version and "c" version of this card on neweggs' site. The 'b' version is $6 cheaper. Only noticed the gl version supported as different. I need a cheap card for an internet computer and was going to get a cheap 5200 but this seems like a better deal.

"b" version

"c" version - op's post

 

[beyonddc]

Originally posted by: Melectricus
Does anyone know the difference between the "b" version and "c" version of this card on neweggs' site. The 'b' version is $6 cheaper. Only noticed the gl version supported as different. I need a cheap card for an internet computer and was going to get a cheap 5200 but this seems like a better deal.

"b" version

"c" version - op's post

One is 64bits and the other one is 128bits.

 

[Melectricus]

I wasn't paying attention..thanks

 

[gshock888]

i finally bought this this morning

but newegg sent this from CA and not NJ... the other day it took them less than 24 hours when they shipped my mobo from NJ...

oh well guess i wont be building this rig till next week

 

[uwannawhat]

Originally posted by: gshock888
i finally bought this this morning

You'll be very happy with this card.

It definitely hits the sweet spot between price/performance.

About the only thing I didn't like with this card is that is uses a passive hs on the gpu. Easy fix though!

 

[ww4397]

I ran ATITool for 10 hours letting it find my maximum memory speed and it was at 239MHz. I don't think that is very good for Samsung 3.6ns chips, is it? I think tcsenter is correct when he suggests that these my be "binned rejects" (see his post several posts above).

When I get more time, I'll let it work on the core clock.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: ww4397
I ran ATITool for 10 hours letting it find my maximum memory speed and it was at 239MHz. I don't think that is very good for Samsung 3.6ns chips, is it? I think tcsenter is correct when he suggests that these my be "binned rejects" (see his post several posts above).

When I get more time, I'll let it work on the core clock.

Not that I'm disappointed. I didn't buy it to overclock, but I got a little excited when I saw the 3.6ns chips. Its still the best deal going for R9600 NP.

On Edit: I was using PowerStrip to overclock the Jetway and ATI release drivers (CAT 4.9). I just tried ATITool and received this message:

A Radeon 9000/9200/9550/9600 has been detected in your system.

These cards are locked against overclocking when using original Catalyst Driver versions 3.4 and up.

If your card's clock speeds revert to default after running a 3D application you need to download a modified driver from http://softmod.techpowerup.com

Sure enough, the damned clocks revert back to default after applying changes in ATITool. I don't remember that occuring in PowerStrip?

 

[ww4397]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
Not that I'm disappointed. I didn't buy it to overclock, but I got a little excited when I saw the 3.6ns chips. Its still the best deal going for R9600 NP.

My mobo, an EPoX 8RDA+, has an AGP voltage adjustment in the BIOS. Am I correct to assume that bumping up that voltage will increase the memory voltage? Will it "overvolt" any other parts of the video card? I've bumped up the voltage on both cpu's and ram but, with each of them, it was obvious what was being overvolted. To me, AGP voltage is a bit more vague.

Any comments?